Hi everyone! I'm back with a new chapter! Thank you soooo much for all the wonderful reviews! I really, really don't wanna disappoint this story's fans and there's not too much further to go on this fic, so I am going to try my absolute best to keep updating. I can't give any time frames for updates, though, because I do work a lot and have other things I have to take care of. I don't want to say one thing and make myself a liar (again). Anyways, please enjoy this long chapter packed with action! And don't forget to review and let me know what you think!

Natsu's P.O.V.

'What time is it? Is it even daylight anymore? I can't say I've seen outside light since I fell. How long have I been down here?'

I was exhausted. Since the moment I realized I was completely stuck in the hole, I had spent countless amounts of energy trying to escape. I used every ounce of magic I possessed trying to melt the ice trapping my arms by my sides, or the thick snow encasing my body up to my waist. I twisted, squirmed, and struggled in every physical way possible to try and dislodge myself, but I never even budged an inch. But that still didn't stop me from completely draining every drop of energy I possessed trying anyways.

I had absolutely no way of telling how long I had been down there. The ice encasing me glowed a faint blue color, but I didn't think it was outside light. Something felt unnatural about it. There were a few times that I nodded off, unable to keep my eyes open any longer, but I always jerked myself awake after a few minutes. Based on how fatigued I was, I had to guess it had been at least a couple of days, if not more.

Lucy would definitely be looking for me by that point. And, as much as I didn't wanna admit it, she probably wasn't gonna find me. That, or she would get trapped herself. We both had been so focused on finding the Sleipnir that I had completely forgotten the riddle's warning about possible traps. Something like, "prison for a doll" and "not seeing light for several days" or something like that. It was a super obvious and clear warning, but I didn't pay attention to it once.

'Well now I fucking am,' I growled inwardly to myself.

What was going to happen to Lucy? She was already searching for me, I knew that much, but would she be okay by herself? I supposed she always had her spirits, but only one of them was any good to her if she found herself missing her keys or suddenly unable to use her own magic. As much as the lion Zodiac got on my nerves, I had to admit he was a pretty good fighter. He was also one of the very few people I really trusted to completely lay everything on the line to protect Lucy. I guessed the same could have been said for her other spirits, but Loke was much more insistent on it.

I had faith in Lucy, though. As much as I wanted to protect her, I'd have been a fucking idiot to think she actually needed it. Watching her over the previous few months had shown me just how strong and capable she had become. She clearly hadn't been lying when she said she had spent a lot of time training with her spirits while I was with Lisanna. I hated that I had missed the opportunity to train with her.

Yeah, Lucy would be just fine. And I would figure a way out of this death trap… eventually.

…

Lucy's P.O.V.

"You ready?"

"Yeah. Let's do this."

Loke and I made it to the nearest tunnel on the left side without incident. The Sleipnir actually seemed very disinterested in us, not even sparing a glance our way. The tunnel we chose first wasn't too terribly large, though it wasn't exactly small either. The opening was probably about as big as a normal hallway, maybe just a hair shorter in height. The green bioluminescent plant-life lined the ceiling, giving us the dull lighting we needed to watch our step. It probably wasn't a good idea to be whipping out bright lights until we knew for certain if there was something waiting to maul us to death the moment we did.

Loke and I walked carefully side-by-side, both tensed and ready for a fight. My whip was at the ready in one hand, while my other hand rested on my keyring.

"This place is crawling with enchantments," Loke said quietly, tilting his head as he stared ahead in concentration. "We may need to be more cautious about traps and spells than any actual monsters."

I swallowed nervously at his words. I could detect enchantments and magic spells if I concentrated hard enough, since that was something my celestial spirits trained me for the previous year. It wasn't easy, however. I whispered back, "Why would someone place so many enchantments on a hole in the ground in the middle of a frozen wasteland?"

"My best guess is some type of treasure," Loke said simply, looking up for a brief moment to observe the growing green moss above our heads. Now that it was closer, it was easy to see it was just normal looking moss that just happened to glow, though what it was doing down there was still beyond me. "I can feel a lot of power behind some of the enchantments around. No one would put in that much of an effort unless there was a reason to keep people out."

"There's an opening," I murmured suddenly, my eyes sharply focusing on the black hole up ahead. I slowed my pace, creeping up quietly and hesitantly looking inside.

"I can't see anything," Loke breathed quietly beside me. I honestly couldn't either. The glowing plant stopped back in the tunnel, so there was nothing to illuminate whatever type of cavern we had found ourselves in. With no other options, Loke lit his palm full of Regulus light.

I couldn't suppress the audible gasp that escaped my lips.

Immediately, as if Loke's light set off a chain reaction, massive columns of intricate vines and massive flowers burst to light brilliantly all around us, the vivid colors radiant with rich magentas, electric blues, and bold greens. The plants and flowers twisted around what looked like piles of rubble and half-broken columns of ice, traveling to the ceiling in a cave pocket the size of the guild's library. The glow was so striking it was like looking at a painting meant to be viewed under a UV light lacrima.

"Incredible," Loke said in awe, looking all around us, the same as me.

I was completely stunned, actually. As weird as it was that something so beautiful was down in a cave in the middle of a frozen death zone, I found myself astonished at the sight. Taking a few dazed steps forward, I reached out to gently touch the gleaming blue flower right in front of me.

Just as my fingertips grazed the strangely rough petals, Loke exclaimed, "Lucy! No!" and suddenly I was half-tackled away from the plant. Not even a half second later, the flower's pleasant glow brightened to a blinding blue light, and some type of unknown blue magic suddenly swirled around that spot. Loke and I backed away from it as we watched it die away slowly.

"Wh-what the hell was that?" I asked in shock.

"Some type of enchantment," Loke huffed. "Not sure what it would have done, but I'm sure it's a good thing I pushed you away in time. Try not to touch anything else if you can help it." Loke didn't seem irritated, just wary.

I nodded and said quietly, "Thank you, Loke." Looking around the place once more, I couldn't see any exit asides from the one we came through. It also didn't look like anyone was there nor had been there in quite a long time… if ever. "I don't think Natsu's here. Let's go."

Loke followed behind me as we left the way we came, taking extra caution in side-stepping the deadly flora. We trekked back through the tunnel in silence, not saying a word until we reached the room with the Sleipnir once more.

"I guess we should just move on to the next one," I said, looking over the rest of the tunnels. There were six of them in total, including the one we had just explored. The size of the tunnels varied greatly, with the next one very tall but narrow. Loke and I would have to walk single-file to get through it.

"This is already becoming tedious," Loke said, eyeing the opening. I shrugged and walked through first, not waiting on him to follow.

Again, there was a line of bioluminescent moss hugging the ceiling, though it was much higher up than the previous tunnel. I heard Loke's footsteps approach behind me, so I kept moving, determined to find my partner. This tunnel in particular seemed to extend further than the previous one, maybe twice the distance in total. When we finally approached the end, the two of us slowed once more and cautiously stepped inside.

It was pitch dark just like the last one, but the echoes from our steps said the space was much, much larger. Loke lit up his palm again, and I instantly groaned at the sight before us. We were standing on a rock that was raised above the rest of the room, and below was a huge expanse of ice, stretching all the way across the cavern where another tunnel was. It was easily the size of a large pond.

"Oh no," I moaned, covering my face and shrinking down in despair. "My worst enemy."

"I take it you're not fond of ice skating," Loke smirked, pushing his shades up with his unlit fist.

"I'm terrible at it," I said through gritted teeth, my eye twitching as I looked at the intimidating ice. "Do you know how many times I've bruised my butt slipping on Gray's ice?" Emitting another audible whine of disdain, I said angrily. "Fine! If this is what I gotta do to find Natsu." Walking to the edge of the raised rock, I saw below where there were several smaller boulders making a way to climb down. As I heaved myself over the edge, I added, "But I really don't think he's gonna be this way. He would have just melted all the ice rather than deal with it."

"True," Loke said thoughtfully as he followed behind me. The drop wasn't very far, so my feet were already on solid ground right next to where the ice started. "We could always go back to the other tunnels and come back to this one if we don't find him then."

I twisted my lips into a frown as I stared across the slick expanse of frozen hell. Pulling my lantern out again and lighting it, I said, "We could. But we're already down here. Let's go." With that, I took my first tentative step onto the ice.

Well, no disasters yet.

I continued in a careful shuffle across the slippery surface, trying to watch my feet and detect any spell traps at the same time. It wasn't easy.

"Lucy, watch out!"

I didn't have time to even glance at Loke before a red magic circle appeared under my feet. On instinct I dove forward, clearing the spot just as an explosion erupted from it. The force of the blast rocketed me forward, making me tumble head over heels a couple of times before landing and sliding across the ice to the far side of the cavern. My body slammed into the icy wall painfully, my head cracking against the hard surface as the air was knocked from my lungs. My lantern had been flung off somewhere and shattered.

"Lucy!"

I was still conscious, though my vision was a little blurry and my body ached like crazy. I could see Loke making a mad dash for me, skating across the ice like a pro with one hand still holding his Regulus light. I had been blasted so far, it actually took a couple of moments for him to reach me, and by that point I was already trying to get to my feet.

"Are you okay?" Loke asked frantically as he slid up to me, throwing a hand out to stop himself with the wall. Looking down at me, he placed a hand on my shoulder to stop me from getting to my feet with a worried frown. "Hold on, your head is bleeding."

Settling back on my knees, I gently reached up and touched it to the sore spot close to my hairline above my right eye. I winced at the pain as I felt a sticky wetness beneath my fingertips. "Ow."

"Here." Loke reached inside the breast pocket of his jacket and produced a handkerchief. Bringing it to my face, he carefully wiped away the blood trickling from the wound before wadding it up and applying pressure to it. I groaned at the unpleasant sensation. "Keep the pressure on and just rest there for a second. It doesn't look too deep, we just need to get the bleeding to stop. Does it hurt?"

"What do you think?" I grumbled at him, taking over the handkerchief to hold it in place.

"Sorry. Do you feel okay, though? You might have a concussion. That was a pretty solid impact you made with the wall."

"A little dizzy," I admitted, blinking and rolling my eyes a couple of times to try and straighten out my vision. It took a few minutes, but the dizziness eventually eased up and I was able to see clearly again. I checked my forehead and was thankful the bleeding had, in fact, stopped.

"I think I'm good now," I said quietly, standing carefully with Loke's help. "We need to keep going."

The good news was the blast had gotten me much closer to my current goal. The other tunnel entrance was now only a mere few yards to the left of where I hit.

"I'll go first this time," Loke said, taking the lead with a few tentative steps. I followed behind, watching my feet but mostly trying to sense any more magic traps or enchantments that were probably hidden somewhere. My split concentration caused my feet to slip a few times, though I did manage to remain upright, thankfully. Loke reached the tunnel in just a few minutes, turning once he was off the ice to watch me catch up.

Once I had traction again, I looked past Loke and into the blackness of the tunnel. Again, no light.

"C'mon, we need to - " My sentence was cut short as a green magic circle lit up the opening, and suddenly a strong gust of wind seemed to vacuum the both of us into the tunnel. I shrieked the moment my feet left solid ground, and I heard Loke shout from behind me as our bodies were sucked quickly through the narrow tunnel. I felt myself getting banged up as I tumbled through the tunnel, and I could hear Loke getting roughed up behind me as well. "Loke -!"

We hadn't been flying through air for more than 30 seconds before I dropped suddenly and landed on a sloped piece of smooth stone with a pained groan. I could see again, since the area around me was covered in a strange blue ice that glowed dimly. Below me, about ten feet down, was a pit of stalagmite jutting up haphazardly from the ground, and I was certain it could impale me to death easily if I fell. The sloped rock I was on was roughly three square feet and was at a steep angle, steep enough that I needed to grip the edges to keep from falling. My entire body ached, and the warm trickle slipping down my forehead said my head injury had started bleeding again.

"Lucy!"

Looking up, I could see Loke poking his head over the edge of the tunnel exit a few feet above me, looking pretty rough up himself. "I'm okay!" I called back, trying to keep the tremor from my voice. It was actually a bit harder to hang on to the rock that I thought, and the strength in my arms was starting to wane. "I need to get back up, though. I don't know how long I can hold on."

"I don't think I can reach you that far down while you're still holding on to that rock," Loke said with a frown. "It's too far. Do you think you could toss me your whip? Maybe I can pull you up with it."

Unfortunately, I was sitting sideways on my hip, and the side I was sitting on happened to be the same one my whip was stuck under. "No. But I have a different idea."

Repositioning my hands so I had a better grip with just one, I used my free hand to pull out a golden key from my belt.

"Open! Gate of the Ram! Aries!"

A ding-dong resounded through the cavern as I swished the key through the air. Up above me, I watched the golden swirl of celestial light manifest beside Loke, taking the form of the bowing Aries.

"I'm so sorry!" she exclaimed right away, bowing over and over.

"Nothing to be sorry for!" I said a bit desperately. My limbs were starting to shake. "Please use your wool to cover all this up and get me out of here."

"Right away, Princess! I'm sorry!" Aries thrust her hands out and commanded, "Wool Cushion!"

Instantly, a massive amount of fluffy pink wool appeared right beneath me, effectively covering the deadly spikes and letting me release my death grip on the rock. I fell back onto the soft cushion of magic, reveling in how soft it was as I caught my breath. Aries then raised me up with it until I was level with her and Loke. I didn't get up right away, taking that moment to breathe just a bit longer and assess my injuries. My ribs hurt a good bit from a protruding rock I had bumped into being dragged through the tunnel, and my shoulder didn't feel great either after meeting the same fate. Opening my cloak, I could see my shoulder looked okay, but glancing just below my breasts on my ribcage, I cringed at the pretty nasty gash I found there.

"Your head's bleeding again," Loke said, stepping forward onto the wool next to me.

"Um, I'm sorry!" Aries said, bowing again. "But Big Sister Virgo said to bring you this! I'm sorry!" At that, she thrust out a small first aid kit to Loke, still bowing.

"Good, thank you, Aries," Loke said, taking the kit from the other spirit.

"I'm sorry! I wish I could do more!" She bowed again.

"It's more than enough Aries," I said gratefully to my spirit, giving her a smile. "Just hang around for a few minutes so we can rest on your wool and patch ourselves up."

"Of course, Princess! Anything you need, I am at your service! I'm sorry!" And another bow.

I moved my attention to Loke, who wasn't bleeding (of course), but his suit was ripped in a few places and I could see where his skin was scuffed and scraped all over. "Are you okay?" I asked in concern. "Do you need to go back to the celestial world to heal?"

"Nah, I'll be fine," he said, opening the kit and pulling out what he needed to bandage my head.

I wasn't sure if I cared for that answer. "But you look pretty beat up. And you've been out here on your own power for quite a while now. You need to rest, Loke."

"I'm perfectly fine, Princess," he argued back with a smirk. "I've gone much longer on my own than this. And… I don't like the idea of you being alone down here. The Arid Steppes is already supposed to be an S-Class level mission location, and the master only agreed to let you take this mission because you had another person with you. Since he's not here right now, I need to be so I can make sure you're safe. And - if nothing else - I can contact the guild for you if you run into trouble."

"Just don't push yourself for my sake, okay?" I pleaded gently, wincing as he finished wrapping my head. Taking the kit from him, I pulled a bandage out and placed it over my bleeding ribs, unwilling to let Loke's hands wander that close to my breasts. I sucked in a breath at the sharp pain that rippled through my ribs when I pressed the bandage down.

"I'll do whatever I have to to keep you safe," he replied simply.

I snapped the kit shut and stood, handing it back to Aries as I stepped back onto solid ground in the tunnel as Loke followed. "Thank you, Aries."

"Anytime, Princess! I'm sorry!" With a final bow, Aries dispersed, her wool dissipating as well. Looking around the strange death room, I muttered. "Well, Natsu's clearly not here. Do you think we'll be able to go back the way we came?"

"Yeah," Loke confirmed, turning to start back through the tunnel. "The spell ended when you went over the edge. That was… Actually a pretty weird enchantment, I'm not gonna lie."

I could only nod silently in agreement as I followed behind. We made it out of there and back to the Sleipnir room quickly enough, with only one spell being triggered on the ice again. It hit Loke in a bright pink light and caused him to break down into an uncontrollable fit of laughter for about five minutes. Again, it was a very strange trap enchantment that left us scratching our heads.

Continuing our clockwise walk on the platform to the tunnel entrances, I looked down with a scowl at the next tunnel. The tunnel was about three feet tall, and just as wide.

"No. Absolutely not. I'm not crawling through that," I said with a huff, crossing my arms over my chest beneath my cloak. Turning in place, I walked on to the next tunnel. "We'll come back to that. If we have to. I doubt Natsu would crawl through there just because he wanted to."

"To be honest," Loke said, following behind, "I'm starting to get the feeling Natsu hasn't been down here at all. His usual havoc and destruction is nowhere to be seen, and the Sleipnir don't seem like they've encountered any flaming maniacs recently."

"I think you may be right," I muttered, looking up at the broad opening of the next tunnel. It was pretty big, almost as large as the main entrance. "But it doesn't make sense. Where else could he have gone? It's probably best that we keep looking anyway."

"Right. Natsu can be unpredictable," Loke agreed. We both walked into the tunnel and started another trek. I had become so accustomed to the light of the bioluminescent moss that it was getting easier to see with it, though some details were still a bit muddy.

The tunnel was short, short enough that we only walked for a minute or two before I could see the exit. Once we cleared the exit, I could see that we were in another massive chamber at least forty feet high, illuminated by the glowing blue ice I had seen earlier. However, before us was a wall that didn't reach the ceiling, maybe half the height. Where we were standing, we had the option to go left or right.

"Which way should we go? Should we split up?" I asked, looking back and forth down the paths.

"Absolutely not," Loke said, shoving his hands into his pockets and glancing down both ways. "This place is just begging for us to get separated."

"True," I said, adjusting my cloak where it hung heavily from my shoulders. "Well, I guess let's go this way." I indicated to the path to our right.

We started walking, not paying much attention to our surroundings since they were nothing but solid ice and stone. As we reached the corner, I peered around the edge.

It split off in two other directions.

"Oh boy," Loke sighed, taking off his shades and pinching the bridge of his nose.

"A maze? Are they serious?!" I huffed in exasperation. "This place is becoming a real pain in the ass." With a scowl, I placed my right hand on the right wall and began walking, following it.

"What are you doing?" Loke asked, walking behind me.

"It's an old miner trick," I explained, continuing to follow the wall. "If you keep following the right-hand side, you'll eventually find the exit. It takes a bit longer sometimes, but it's better than getting lost or turned around."

With a smirk, Loke said, "I didn't know you used to be a miner, Lucy. I bet you looked great wearing nothing but a helmet -"

I shot him an unamused look, effectively cutting him off. "I'll have you know, I had to do some research on it for the book I'm writing."

"Ah, yes," Loke said in a faux wistful tone, "I always forget that you're a bookworm under all that beauty."

I rolled my eyes but didn't say anything else as I continued my march. The gleam of the enchanted ice was much easier to see with than the glow of the green moss, but there wasn't much to see where we were at. Just walls of stone and ice.

We made several twists and turns, following along the right side as closely as possible. After about half an hour, we encountered our first trap.

"Loke! What are you doing?" I called, half-laughing, looking down in a pit of water that suddenly appeared in the middle of our path. Loke had gotten a few steps ahead of me and fell straight into it, making a loud splash as he spluttered.

"Yeah, yeah, ha ha. This is so funny," he said sarcastically, treading the water. "Just toss your whip down here and help me out."

I suppressed a snicker as I pulled my whip free and lowered it into the water for Loke to grab. After struggling for a moment to pull him out, I refocused my attention to my new task at hand. The gap of the pit was much too large for me to attempt to jump across.

Pulling out my keys, I looked through them for a moment before selecting Gemini. Swishing their key through the air, I summoned, "Open, Gate of the Twins! Gemini!"

With a ding-dong and a swirl of golden light, the twins appeared before me.

"Piri! Piri!"

"Hey guys," I greeted them. Pointing to the pit, I said, "I need to get across here. Who is the best person you've got stored for this?"

"Piri! Piri!"

With a poof of magic, the twins transformed into… Gray.

"Dammit!"

The Gray doppelganger smiled at me, giving me a small laugh. "Sorry, Lucy," they said in Gray's lazy drawl. "It's the best I've got." With that, Gemini slammed his fists together before smacking them to the ground. "Ice Make: Floor!"

In an instant, a thick sheet of ice covered the pit, making a solid bridge across.

Groaning at the pain I was about to inflict upon myself, again, I said, "Thanks, Gemini."

"No problem, Princess," they said in Gray's cool tone. And with another swirl of golden celestial magic, the twins were gone.

Loke and I made it across the ice, though I slipped twice, landing on my butt both times. Loke and I continued following the right-side wall for at least another hour. Throughout that time, we managed to trigger another explosion magic circle which almost got Loke, and an electric magic circle which zapped me pretty hard and left my hair standing on end for several minutes. Loke had also triggered a poison circle, though it didn't do anything to him so we assumed it wasn't meant for celestial spirits. And I also got hit by the same laughing spell Loke had earlier, which kept me on the ground in a fit of giggles for almost ten minutes.

After all of that, we finally arrived at another tunnel entrance, which was also lined with the glowing blue ice. Loke and I eyed the opening warily, both of us fully aware there was probably another enchantment around somewhere.

"There's so many enchantments in this place, it's hard to detect all their locations," Loke said, leaning his head back slightly and pulling one of his hands from his pockets. Holding it in front of him, he closed his eyes in concentration. I did the same, doing my best to detect whatever could be lurking ahead. I wasn't as good at detecting them as Loke, but trying for some practice definitely wouldn't hurt.

Closing my eyes and focusing, I did my best to feel the area around me with my magic. I let the tendrils flow through the space, touching the surfaces and feeling for another magic to collide with it. Just as I felt the tingles of the many surrounding enchantments, Loke spoke again.

"I can't tell if there are any this way. There's too much magical interference."

"It's okay," I reassured him in a slightly disappointed tone. "We have to keep going, regardless."

Loke nodded at that and approached the entrance first. I followed, trying my best to keep my nerves under wraps. I had to admit I was completely unprepared for the bizarre mission I found myself on, and the even more bizarre cave I was exploring. I honestly didn't know what to expect from one moment to the next.

And with good reason.

After only a few seconds of walking, the blue glow of the ice around us suddenly brightened into a blinding light. I threw my arm over my eyes to shield them until it died away. Peeking past my arm, my eyes widened when I looked past Loke. Ahead, the floor of the tunnel had suddenly raised up, creating a staircase.

"Well, at least that one didn't try to kill us," Loke said in amusement.

"To be fair," I said, eyeing the staircase nervously, "the laughter spell didn't either. I think they designed these enchantments to just be massive inconveniences."

"Yeah, this place is definitely odd," Loke agreed.

Taking a deep breath and steeling myself, I bravely started my ascent up the stone steps, though my body felt like every nerve was in danger of breaking down. The stairs seemed to go on forever, long enough that my legs were burning from the workout by the time we reached the top. After at least 200 steps, I finally reached level ground and immediately collapsed in a heap of exhaustion.

As my chest heaved air in and out, I croaked, "What… the hell… kind of… place… is this?"

Looking up, I could see that Loke seemed unbothered, staring down at me with a small smile quirking up the corner of his lips. "Looks like you need to work out some more, Princess."

"Shut up you stupid lion!"

After resting for a few minutes, Loke helped me to my feet and I was finally able to observe our surroundings. We were basically in an empty cavern, lit by the strange ice in a completely bare dome.

I took three steps before the entire place shook beneath my feet. I jumped back, bumping into Loke in the process, and yanked out my whip. The two of us were on high alert, looking back and forth around the cave for the threat. After a few seconds of the ground shaking, a massive black magic circle appeared in the middle of the room, shooting out columns of blackened light. Loke and I had to dodge a couple of tendrils that struck our way. A minute later, the magic circle and the darkness dissipated.

Revealing some kind of monster.

The thing opened its wide jowls and screeched into the air, the sound piercing and deafening. The creature towered over us, at least twenty feet in height. It's short snout was accompanied by two massive tusks jutting from its lower jaw. The creature was covered in what looked like navy blue wool, and it's mouth was filled with a lot of sharp teeth. Its eyes were small and beady, and it had two small, short horns protruding from either side of its head.

"Get down!" I shouted at Loke, diving out of the way as the monster suddenly turned, whipping its freakishly long tail at us. The tip of its tail had some type of spiked ball, and it was fairly large. The creature's tail landed with a ground shattering force, breaking apart the stone where we had been standing only moments before.

"I got this!" I shouted, whipping out the first key that came to mind. Violently swishing it through the air, I said, "Open! Gate of the Golden Bull! Taurus!"

My giant cow spirit showed up in a rumble of glory, mooing loudly and swinging his axe around. "Good day, Miss Loooocy! I'm ready to protect that perfect bod!"

My eye twitched, but I decided to ignore it. "Taurus! Let's show this thing who it's messing with!"

"Let's get moooving!" he responded enthusiastically, leaping forward with his axe at the ready. Since Taurus had started attacking at the head, I circled around in a wide arc to bring its back legs into my line of sight. Loke swooped in to help Taurus, so I figured I would make their job easier by immobilizing the beast. Pulling out my whip, I cracked it once for good measure before slinging it around the creature's back legs. Once it wrapped around a few times, I yanked as hard as I could on the whip, drawing it tightly around the thing's back legs. It wound them together, immobilizing the beast and making its hindquarters fall sideways.

In the next moment, I watched as Taurus's axe came down and cleaved the creature in two with its golden light. The beast fizzled out in an instant, disappearing without a trace. My mouth gaped opened at the suddenly empty space before me, not believing how easy that had been.

"Uh… Ooookayyyy…." I said slowly, eyeing the blank space carefully. "Well, that was easy. Thanks, Taurus. I guess you can go now."

"I dunno, I'd much rather stick around and ogle your perfect booobs -"

"YOU CAN'T EVEN SEE THEM UNDER MY CLOAK, YOU PERVERTED COW!" I barked, swishing his key once more and causing him to disperse.

Looking at Loke, I said, "Well, I guess Natsu's not -" Without warning, the blue ice around us glowed brighter again, nearly blinding me as the ground under my feet fell away. I clenched my eyes shut to shield them from the brightness as I fell a few feet. When I landed on a smooth incline, I opened my eyes again to see that I was on some type of crazy slide made of the glowing ice. I could hear Loke's yelp off in the background somewhere, and I assumed he had also gotten dropped onto a slide.

I screeched as the slide made twists and turns, and I couldn't really see anything until a moment later when I found myself in an open space, still sliding down. Below, I could see the top of the maze Loke and I had managed to find our way through, and I stopped screaming a moment to stare in awe. What the hell is this place?

I could only see it for a couple of moments before I went into another tunnel on the slide. I gritted my teeth, trying to choke back another scream, and only a few seconds later I suddenly dropped from the slide and tunnel and was dumped unceremoniously onto the ground. The impact knocked the wind from me, and I was busy gasping for air as I heard Loke's incoming yell, and suddenly I was being crushed beneath him.

I struggled to breathe, gasping and cringing at the pain. I had been beaten up enough already, why did this keep happening? I groaned as I heard Loke chuckle above me.

"Thanks for the catch, Princess."

"Get. Off." I managed to grind out between gasps. In the next second, Loke had rolled off the top of me, standing to his feet while I remained on the ground. I lay still, heaving air in and out of my lungs as I let the soreness from the impact wracking my body subside. Glancing around my head, I could see that we were back in the Sleipnir room, right next to the fourth tunnel we had entered into. There was now a small hole above it, which I assumed was where we had just been so gracefully dropped from.

"Well," Loke said, taking a look around the walls. "At least we didn't have to find our way back through the maze."

"Hallelujah for small miracles," I said, finally feeling okay enough to get to my feet. I did so carefully, but just as I stood up, I noticed something shocking. "The Sleipnir are gone."

Loke turned, his eyes widening a fraction in mild surprise. "Huh. Well, I guess they have to eat sometime. Can't very well eat rocks. I don't think."

It made sense, so I put it out of my mind. Turning back around, I looked to the tunnel entrances. Number five was kind of odd looking, and while it would be big enough for us to get through, its strange shape was going to make it awkward. The entrance almost looked like a question mark in its shape, and was just large enough for us to get through if we leaned over to the left as we walked.

"This is gonna be weird," I said.

"Yeah, and things have already been weird, so I really don't know what to expect at this point," Loke replied, eyeing the opening warily.

I could only nod in agreement.

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